Looks like the TSA officers aren’t the only ones who tend to get overzealous with toy guns. Security officials at London Heathrow confiscated a miniature toy gun that a Woody doll, from the Toy Story trilogy, was carrying.

A bemused air traveler has claimed on a social networking site that the figure was examined at Heathrow by security staff — who then subsequently confiscated the doll’s tiny firearm.

The traveler, who backed up their claim by posting online a photo of Woody being impounded, said: ‘I have travelled the world with Toy Story’s Woody, taking pics for my son.

“At Heathrow, security just confiscated his ‘weapon’ — keep the world safe, boys.”

The decision, which Boeing management is expected to announce as early as Tuesday, secures for Snohomish County an investment of up to $4 billion and more than a decade of work for thousands of employees who will fabricate the advanced composite-plastic wing.

Explosive found in carry-on bag at Anchorage airport

Security agents closed the checkpoint at Anchorage airport when explosives were found in a carry-on bag belonging to an oil field worker.

The “possible threat item” was detected as the passenger’s carry-on bag was being screened at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport on Sunday afternoon, said Ann Davis, a Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman.

The device appeared to be a pipe bomb and the passenger told authorities it was a device used to trigger avalanches, said Airport Manager John Parrott.

The MSN headline about “explosive found in carry-on bag” is completely — and deliberately — misleading. No explosives were found. No pipe bomb.

The guy was an oil field worker in Alaska and he was carrying a device used to trigger avalanches, but the device was inert: it didn’t have a triggering mechanism. It was no danger to anybody. But the mainstream press, as usual, gets off on fear mongering and on pretending the TSA is saving us all from certain disaster.

The UK story, unfortunately, shows that the TSA’s tactics, pushed by DHS even in foreign airports, have infected everyone. Reminds me of the TSA confiscating the “gun” of the Terrorist Sock Monkey:

Also, the guy was heading for a Part 135 charter flight from Anchorage to Prudhoe Bay. The oil companies have their own planes — these are not public flights flying under Part 121. ConocoPhillips has already confirmed publicly that there was “no ill will” involved. The FBI, which investigated the incident, is due to make a statement later today. It will be interesting to hear why the worker had this in his luggage — the North Slope is flat as a pancake and gets very little precipitation of any kind, so it’s not like avalanche shells are needed up there.

Maybe the dude has friends at the TSA who are worried Congress might actually cut back on their budget or mandate due to the vanishingly low number of true threats (as opposed to drugs etc.) the agency is encountering. They desperately need a justification for their continued existence. Their numbers conceal huge government employment cutbacks everywhere else, and the add-on fees to pay for their security theater keep going up.

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